Feeding orioles can mean a jelly good time

Throughout the spring and summer, the sweet smell of simmering jelly comes from Cathy Clausen’s kitchen. Until now, she has cooked up the heirloom grape-apple recipe a couple of times a month. That’s about to change.

“Things are about to get really, really crazy, so I’ll be making a batch per week, and that’s 8 pints,” she said. “They’ll be here eating big mouthfuls of jelly and any fruit they can find, worms, any protein they can get and then more jelly.”

Clausen is feeding gallons of homemade jelly to brilliantly colored Baltimore orioles in her backyard. Her husband, Nick, prefers the jelly go to the birds rather than his breakfast toast.

“There are times the orioles are lined up to get on them (feeders),” said Nick Clausen, who owns the Backyard Nature Center with his wife. “We have two jelly feeders, and we usually have to fill them twice a day.”

Nick Clausen said their customers have shown increased interest in feeding jelly to orioles the past few years.

“People just naturally get excited when they can see a beautiful, bright orange bird come to their feeders in the summer,” he said, adding that they usually feed them at their home near the Little Arkansas River mid-April through late September, when the birds head south again.

Patty Marlett, an avid birder and retired naturalist at the Great Plains Nature Center, is in her third year of feeding jelly to orioles at her home near 37th and Meridian. She has seen their numbers increase annually. Now they’re a common sight.

“I’ve had as many as eight at a time, and I figure I have at least 14,” Marlett said. “A fellow birder told me that whatever you think you have, you need to triple it. I guess that means we should have at least a couple of dozen using our yard.”

The bird’s fondness for mulberries, which are dark purple when ripe, may be why grape jelly is so popular with them. Marlett has tried several other kinds of jellies and marmalades, and grape jelly always seems to be the preferred flavor and color for the orioles in her yard.

Jelly debate

There’s been some debate on feeding jelly to orioles within the birding community. Some contend the food may contain too much fructose. Clausen and Marlett aren’t worried.

“They certainly seem to be thriving better than ever,” Marlett said. “And it’s not like they aren’t still eating plenty of insects and other foods, too.”

Clausen said she went through special training taught by a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist when they first got into a business that promotes feeding. Her instructors, she said, avidly fed jelly to orioles.

“I’m going with what the biologist told me,” she said.

Only males at least 2 years old have the species’ trademark glossy black head and flaming orange breast and belly. Females and yearling males lack the black head and are mostly covered with orangeish-yellow feathering.

The species isn’t named for the city in Maryland. In Colonial times, the birds were so named because the striking plumage of adult males matched the coat of arms of Britain’s Lord Baltimore.

According to the “Sibley Field Guide to Birds,” Baltimore orioles range from central Manitoba to northern Louisiana and well up into Maine. There’s no shortage of the birds in most parts of Kansas, at least not where there are feeding stations to concentrate them.

“(Feeding summer jelly) has indeed helped the local neighborhood population,” said Tom Shane, a Garden City birder for 52 years. His wife, Sara, has fed the orioles for about six years. “Fifteen to 20 years ago, it didn’t seem like we saw many in the summer. Over the past few years, I think we’ve had four or five pairs nesting in the neighborhood.”

Max Thompson, a retired Southwestern College biology professor, said orioles like to live in woodlands and seem to thrive in towns. He said orioles frequently build their hanging basket-style nests in tall trees, like cottonwoods.

It’s because of what’s been happening in those nests within about the past week that activity is beginning to pick up at most jelly feeders. Cathy Clausen said taking care of eggs and young birds kept adult orioles busy for several weeks, decreasing sightings at feeders. Now that the young are fledgings, activity is increasing.

“It’s gotten better, not crazy, but it should,” she said. “We’re getting more adult males at our feeders. We haven’t seen any young yet, but when that happens, soon, is when it can get fun and crazy. It’ll be a busy time (at the jelly feeders) from here on out.”

This story was originally published July 5, 2015 at 9:59 PM with the headline "Feeding orioles can mean a jelly good time."